My own course to Aalto has been rather straightforward. Already years before university I knew that I wanted to study transportation engineering, and for that task I felt Spatial Planning and Transportation Engineering Master’s program was the best choice.
The best thing about my program is the combination of spatial planning and transportation engineering. I’m pretty sure that if I had never gotten into this program, I would have become an expert only in transportation engineering. Now instead, I also have better insights on how cities should be planned as a whole, instead of having these themes separately.
The most interesting study project before my own master’s thesis must be the Planning Studio course. In this course we developed strategic land use development scenarios for the city of Espoo for the year 2050. At the height of the course we, the whole course of 25 people, were working on the same plan, and it happened to be my responsibility to lead this effort. That was interesting as well as challenging!
My regular day as a student is rather splintered. I work besides my studies in the field of transportation engineering, so around a half or a third of my day is dedicated to office work. Besides that, I might have one or two lectures and a group work meeting. Anyways most of my time is spent on the computer for some individual task – either on work or school related issues.
I am a member of the representative council of the student union of Aalto University, which means I join meetings once every month to decide on the direction of our student union. Earlier I was the treasurer of our guild, which meant a lot of meetings, a lot of student parties as well as a lot of work on Excel!
I’m already working besides my studies, and I aim to stay at this employment for at least some years after my graduation. I’m comfortable saying that this is close to any dreams that I have about my career! I plan mass transit at a consultancy for municipalities all around Finland, and especially the new light rail projects of the Helsinki region.
My tip to students starting their studies is: join any course that manages to capture your interest! A master’s degree does not take that long to finish, which means this is a very short and precious opportunity to learn about all kinds of thing and courses Aalto has to offer. Be sure to take that opportunity!
Making smarter and more liveable cities requires new skills that integrate land use and transportation. The Master's Programme in Spatial Planning and Transportation Engineering offers the skills you need to design and develop urban and regional systems. The programme combines technical and human-centered approaches in land use planning and transportation engineering.